Homilies on Jeremiah 20.8

“For the word of the Lord became to me a reproach.” Blessed is Jeremiah, who had no other reproach than the word of the Lord. But we wretches have reproaches not because of the word of the Lord, but because of our own sins, and we are reproached for the things in which we stumble and have stumbled, and are reviled for our wickedness. But the Savior does not want us to be reproached with such reproaches, saying: “Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you for my sake.” “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.” “The word,” then, he says, “of the Lord became to me a reproach and a derision all day long.” Then consider how fair-minded the prophets are as men, and do not hide their own sins as we do, but tell, not only for those of that time but for all generations, if they have sinned. I hesitate to confess my sins before the few here, since my hearers are going to condemn me. But Jeremiah, having undergone something sinful, was not ashamed, but recorded his sin; for what follows in “And I said, I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name” was a sin. You have been taught “to do all things in the name of the Lord,” to act in God's name; and do you say, “I will not name the name of the Lord”? But what name are you going to name? “You shall not remember the name of other gods in your hearts”; and do you say, “I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name”? He says it, then, having suffered something human, which we too are often in danger of suffering. And especially if someone is conscious of having suffered misery and ill-treatment and hatred at some time because of his teaching and the word, he often says: “I will withdraw; what have I to do with troubles? If from this I am in troubles, from teaching, from putting forth the word, why do I not rather withdraw to the desert and quiet?” The prophet too suffered something of this kind, saying: “And I said, I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name.” But in this the Lord is good, who prevents such sins of such great men. He did not let the prophet make good what he had said, but made Jeremiah call on faithlessness in this too and break what he had said. For he said, “I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name”; “but there came,” he says, “in my heart as it were a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it.” The word of the Lord began to burn his heart. “And there came in my heart as it were a flaming fire, burning in my bones.” He cast off the sin he had committed in saying, “I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak in his name any more”; and Jeremiah cast off the sin as soon as he said it. Would that I too, as soon as I sinned and spoke a sinful word, might perceive that “a fire has come in my heart, burning and flaming, so that I cannot bear it.” The word is about to venture something, and I do not know whether it is beneficial for such an audience and such a people: it has said that there is a kind of fire, a fire not perceptible, which punishes the one punished with pain so that he cannot bear it. For he said, “There came in my heart as it were a flaming fire,” and “burning,” not in my heart only but also “in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it.” I fear that such is what is laid up for us: a fire coming about as it came in Jeremiah's heart. But we have not suffered it. If we had suffered it, and the two fires were set before us, this fire and the outward fire which we see in those burned by the governors of the nations, we would choose that fire rather than this. For that one burns the surface, but this burns the heart, and beginning from the heart it penetrates to all the bones, and penetrating to the bones it comes upon the whole of the one burned, and comes in such a way that the one burned cannot bear it. Who, in that fire, can say, “and I cannot bear it”? I know that even robbers have been able to endure that fire, the pain from that fire. The pain from the fire that Jeremiah described is another, when he said: “And there came in my heart as it were a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it.” That fire the Savior kindles, who said, “I came to cast fire on the earth.” And since the Savior kindles that fire, for this reason with those who are beginning to hear him he begins from fire, and first casts fire on their heart; which Simon and Cleopas confess, saying at his words: “Was not our heart burning on the way, as he opened the Scriptures to us?” Here the heart of Simon and of Cleopas is burned with fire. Hear them saying, “Was not our heart burning?” Who is worthy now to receive that fire in the heart, so as not to receive it there? I wish to describe who it is that has this fire in his heart. Describe for me two who have committed the same sin in kind, the foul, the unclean sin of sexual immorality; and of these two who have committed sexual immorality, one not grieving nor pained nor stung, but experiencing what is said in Proverbs of the immoral woman, “who, when she has done it, washes herself and says she has done nothing wrong.” See for me the other, after the fall, unable to bear it, but punished in his conscience, tormented in his heart, unable to eat and drink, fasting not by decision but through the pain of repentance. Describe for me such a one “all day long going about with a sad face and bowed down, groaning from the sighing of his heart, seeing his sin before him” continually convicting him. And see such a one punished not for one day nor for one night, but for a long time. Which of the two do you prefer? Which do you say has hopes with God? The one who committed sexual immorality and did not care, but “became callous and gave himself up to licentiousness,” or this one who, after his one sin, mourns and laments? This one † has hopes. The more he is burned by the fire of grief, the more he is shown mercy; and a sufficient time of punishment is given him, as much as is given in time of punishment to the one who committed sexual immorality and grieved. And since for him a time of punishment here is profitable, for this reason [Paul] took pains to punish the one who had committed sexual immorality, and when he had punished him with grief and saw that the grief was sufficient, he says: “lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive grief, reaffirm your love for him.” Let each of us examine his own conscience and see what he has sinned, since he must be punished. Let him pray to God that this fire that was in Jeremiah may come upon him, and then the fire that was upon Simon and Cleopas; but if he has sinned and has not cared, he will be kept for that fire. “And there came in my heart as it were a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it, for I heard the blame of many gathering round about.” The blameless, the blessed Jeremiah (I speak with the exception of this small sin and anything else slight he did) was blamed by many. But the blame of the many was praise for him with God. For those who blamed him said: “Rise up, and let us all rise up against him, men his friends; watch his purpose, and he will be deceived.” They wished to deceive him with another, destructive deception, opposite to the deception of which he said, “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived.” And these who rise up against him say: “And we shall prevail against him, and take our vengeance on him.” Those rebuked for their own sins think they have been wronged, and for this reason, thinking themselves wronged, they say: “We shall take our vengeance on him.” Those who sawed Isaiah did something of this kind; for as though wronged (since the prophecies turned them back and punished them, rebuked and reproved them) they sawed him and passed a sentence of death on him. But Jeremiah says against those who rose up: “And the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.” If we become such as we ought to be, and accept that fire coming upon our sins, as it came to Jeremiah and those like him, the Lord afterward is with us “like a mighty warrior.” And “therefore they persecuted and could not understand,” because the Lord was with the one persecuted, and the one persecuted cannot come into their hands. Perhaps, then, as many things of Jeremiah are referred to the Savior, this too can be such? For “Rise up, and let us rise up against him” is said also of the Savior. And “the Lord” was with him “like a mighty warrior; therefore they persecuted and could not understand,” the Jews who persecuted him: “they were greatly ashamed and did not understand their dishonors”; dishonored for so long a time, they do not tell their own sins, “which will not be forgotten for ever,” but they think that in this age their iniquities will be forgotten. But we see that their iniquities will not be forgotten for ever, and seeing it we remember: “Do not be high-minded, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare” those contrary to nature? “The Lord of hosts,” then, is with us, “testing righteous things, understanding the reins and the hearts.” The Lord tests righteous things and rejects unrighteous ones, and is, if I may so name him, a money-changer of the righteous and the unrighteous; and this Lord is also the one “who understands the reins and the hearts.” I ask what the difference is between “understanding the reins and the hearts” and “examining the hearts and the reins.” He does not examine the hearts and reins of all, but of those who have sinned; for I note the meaning of “examining,” which in this life is used of those under torture. In the courts some examine, others are examined, and others are in the heaviest pains. But [God] alone has a new manner of examinations, for he examines hearts, and to the Lord alone belongs examining hearts and reins. Robbers here are examined on the ribs at the order of a governor; but there a man is examined in reins and heart not at God's order but by the Lord himself, unless perhaps I say here that the one commanded is the Son, the one commanding the Father, and the one who examines hearts and reins is the Word. And I think that, of all tortures, of all pains, those from the Word are the heaviest, when he examines both hearts and reins. So let us do everything so as not to be handed over to that examination. I think those handed over to the torturers spoken of in the Gospel suffer less than that examination; for they are handed over to many, perhaps to more torturers at the beginning, not yet having become worthy to be handed over to the one Word who examines hearts and reins. That rich man was not yet worthy to be handed over to the one who examines hearts and reins; that is why he was tormented by several. Whether he later suffers this or not, let whoever can examine. But what awaits us is torturers and one who examines the hearts and reins for our sins; and unless we are quickly rid of these sins, we shall be among these things. So let us rise and ask for help from God, so that we may be blessed in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.